Happy Birthday Ryan

It's that time of year! Apples, lots of apples and ever since I can remember (except for the Ghost buster cake) I had made Ryan a Swedish Apple Pie for his birthday. It's not just any old Apple pie either, it is a pie that makes it's own crust and wonderful warm out of the oven. Now that Ryan is married and living in sunny Calilfornia I no longer have to make it for him but I have had a craving for it. This is the time of year I love, cool crisp fall days and visits to the local cider mill. I would love to post the recipe but I don't have it here in Ohio. So Ryan if you could please post the recipe I would appreciate having it! The picture of Ryan under Grandpa Harrington's apple tree is one of my favorites. I think this was taken the first time Dad brought you over to my house to meet my parents and it was just before your first birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!

Love You,

Mom

Where am I?

We are back at our little home in Cleveland after spending a lot of time on the road. We were in Michigan for my Family reunion, Chicago to visit with Margy and the kids while they were there visiting Erin then to Florida for a business/pleasure trip in which we got to visit Nicole and Jeff's Mom, Dad, brother Greg and Jeff.

It was good to be home but I have to admit that I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and have to think of where I am. And when I sit down to watch TV, I can't remember what the major networks channels are, again I have to stop and think of where I am. Last week I had to give someone our Carolina phone number and I couldn't remember it! I can give you the phone number for the last 7 house but I couldn't remember our current number. We went to the mall recently and had to stop and think of what mall, and in what city we were in. Am I loosing it?

We are off again this weekend, Jeff to China and I am off to Michigan to visit family and friends. I'll update again soon...........

Oh, Hi Bob

Kids, Remember Bobby Gardner? Well he lives in Ohio and we met him about 1/2 way for dinner on Saturday night. We met his girlfriend Meg (very nice) and had a good time talking about old times. Bob and Dad reminisced about their days at Stanley Tools and old friends.
Bob's oldest daughter Abby will be a senior in HS and Gwen will enter the 8th grade. He is considering locating to Huntersville after Abby graduates next year. Asked about you all!

P.S. And I missed his giggle!

My 52nd Birthday Card

This is so not me!!!

Cleveland

Hey Everyone,
We made it into Cleveland last night around 10PM. I plan on staying through the summer unless the house sells, then I will go back. Looking forward to being able to visit family in Detoit. We are planning on going to Detoit tomorrow and then I will go again next week while Dad is gone on business. We had a great visit in Chicago last weekend, it was good the see Erin and Margy. Dad doesn't have any pics on this computer so I can't upload any images of our trip. But I will when he loads some on his computer.

I do have to tell you about this young gentleman that I sat next to on my flight to Chicago. He was working on his Master's in Psychology. We talked about all different things and what kind of research he wanted to work on. One was relationships. To make a long story short, he told me that he and most guys look for one thing in a women and it wasn't to be friends. He said if a chick says to him that they want to be friends and hang out he bolts! If he wants to hang out, he would hang out with his guy friends. This is what Jeff has been telling the girls for a long time.
I think that that all changes when they meet the right women, otherwise no guy would ever be married! Men and women can hang out together when they find the right one. I hope he meets someone that changes his mind.

Bacon- Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies

One of my favorite blogs is the Pioneer Women. She has all sorts of great photo's and tutorials, stories and recipes. I found this recipe and decided to try it out on Jeff last night. All I can say is they are addictive, you can't stop eating them. The first one was not hot at all and the second had a little more heat but not too bad!
The recipe says to leave some pulp and seeds (the source of the heat) if you want lot's of heat. But, I was too chicken! I see now she baked them on a rack, I didn't and they didn't get too crispy on the bottom sitting in their own juices, next time I will put them on a rack. Click on the link to get a printable recipe and while your there look around at her interesting blog. Enjoy!

P.S. I found a little worm in one of the jalapenos, what kinda worm likes the fire of a jalapeno?

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/bacon-wrapped_j/

25th Silver Wedding Anniversary

Jeff just happened to have to be in Las Vegas for our 25th Wedding Anniversary so we thought why not have all the kids meet us for a nice weekend celebration. Ryan & Whit from Santa Barbara, Nicole from Tampa, Erin from Chicago, Jeff from Cleveland and me from North Carolina. It was great to see all the kids together, seeing that we are all so far away from each other. We had fun playing the slots and walking around Vegas before our Anniversary dinner.
We had reservations at Rao's in Caesar's Palace for Saturday night. We all went to our rooms to get ready and when the kids knocked on the door I was so surprised to see them all standing there looking like a million bucks all dressed in silver. I wanted to cry, for 2 reasons. 1st is they all looked so great and went to all the expense of getting new outfits and 2nd because I didn't bring anything dressy to wear and looked like a frump next to them! Well, we had a great dinner at Rao's, everything was wonderful and the pasta was exceptional!

Ryan and Whit had to leave Sunday since the are leaving next week for China, Jeff worked the Show and the girls and I hung out around Vegas. Didn't get to lucky this trip, Jeff won $550 and I won $500, which is not to bad but I usually get luckier than that. But I couldn't of been happier than to have all the kids together with us to help celebrate our 25th.